LOUGHTON AND THE PRESERVATION OF EPPING FOREST

The history of Epping Forest, including the events
which led up to its preservation in the 19th
century, has been told by
W. R. Fisher in his Forest
of Essex. (fn. 1) Minor inclosures from the forest had been going on in Loughton
and other forest parishes from early times. (fn. 2) In 1666
Sir Henry Wroth, lord of the manor of Chigwell, applied
to the Crown for licence to inclose 1,500 acres of the
wastes of the manors of Chigwell and Loughton, but
this was refused. (fn. 3) Wholesale inclosure does not appear
to have been suggested again until the 19th century,
and then the Crown took the initiative.

In 1817 the Commissioners of Woods and Forests
presented to Parliament a Bill to disafforest the whole
forest, to extinguish the rights of common and to vest
part of the forest in the Crown. (fn. 4) Anthony Hamilton,
Rector of Loughton 1805-51, was one of the few supporters of this proposal, which was withdrawn after
strong opposition. The commissioners, however, were
still determined to inclose the forest. They connived
at illegal inclosures and pressed private land-owners to
purchase the forest rights of the Crown. Hainault
Forest was disafforested in 1851 and was inclosed soon
after. (fn. 5) In 1857 the commissioners invited W. W.
Maitland, lord of the manor of Loughton, to purchase
the Crown's rights over 1,377 acres of uninclosed waste
within his manor. He agreed to pay £5,468 and the
conveyance was made in 1858-60. (fn. 6) These facts were
never disputed during the evidence before the Epping
Forest Commission in 1873, and they are important
because they show that the first move towards the
inclosure of this substantial part of the forest was made
not by the lord of the manor but by the Crown.
Inclosure appears to have been considered locally
during the lifetime of W. W. Maitland, and in 1859
a proposal to the Inclosure Commissioners was discussed. (fn. 7) Soon after this Maitland died and no further
action appears to have been taken until 1864, when his
son the Revd. J. W. Maitland decided to inclose the
forest. (fn. 8) According to the steward of the manor, W. C.
Metcalfe, Maitland was moved to this action 'at the
instance of some of the principal freeholders and copyholders'. (fn. 9)

Maitland and his larger tenants stood to gain
financially by the inclosure of more than 1,000 acres of
forest. On the other hand those who desired inclosure
argued that the close proximity of the forest had had
some bad social effects on Loughton in the past. In
the 18th century the forest was the haunt of highwaymen, among them the notorious Dick Turpin (1706-
39) who is said to have roasted an old woman over a
fire at Traps Hill Farm in order to make her reveal
where her money was hidden. (fn. 10) As a defence against
such attacks many of the houses in Loughton contained 'Turpin traps', consisting of wooden flaps which
were let down over the head of the staircase and kept
there by a pole placed against the ceiling so that they
could not be raised from below. As late as 1891 there
were those still living who had seen Turpin traps in
some of the houses. (fn. 11) It was not suggested in the 1860's
that highwaymen were still a serious menace, but the
forest still harboured some unwelcome characters,
including gipsies. (fn. 12) The supporters of inclosure also
believed that the poorer people of Loughton were
tempted to idleness and crime by the custom of
'lopping' for firewood in the forest during the winter
months. The views of the inclosures were summed
up by a writer in 1861: 'inclosures, however, seem to
be commencing in the neighbourhood, which will
probably check these irregular and to a certain extent
demoralizing tendencies.' (fn. 13) As a final argument it was
asserted that part of the forest was stunted and of poor
quality. (fn. 14)

It was with these views that Maitland proceeded to
inclose the forest within the manor of Loughton. He
owned the forest rights formerly held by the Crown
and there were ancient precedents in the court rolls of
the manor for the inclosure of forest waste. (fn. 15) His
principal tenants welcomed inclosure. In 1864 they
agreed that the lord should have two-thirds of the
inclosed land and the commoners one-third. (fn. 16) Grants
of land or money were subsequently made to a number
of tenants of the manor in order to extinguish their
common rights. Maitland then inclosed some 1,000
acres of forest, started to drive roads through it and
sold some plots for building and other purposes. (fn. 17)

The opposition to these inclosures will always be
associated with the Willingale family. The story has,
however, gathered some accretions of legend and the
whole truth is difficult to determine. The inhabitants
of Loughton had an ancient right of lopping wood from
the forest from 12 November each year until 23 April
following. (fn. 18) They seem to have thought it necessary
for the preservation of their rights that lopping should
begin as the clock struck midnight on 11-12 November.
They met in the woods for the purposes, usually at
Staples Hill, and celebrated with a bonfire and beerdrinking. (fn. 19) The other forest parishes had also possessed lopping rights. (fn. 20) At Theydon Bois there was a
lopping custom similar to that at Loughton. At
Waltham Abbey and Sewardstone the lopping rights
had been converted into fuel assignments attached to
certain tenements in those manors. (fn. 21) A polemical tract
published in 1860, at the beginning of the inclosure
controversy, claimed that the people of Waltham Abbey
had been deprived of their ancient lopping rights by
means of a 'general drunk and supper', on 11 November
1641 '... which was a snare' and caused them to forget
and so to lose those rights. (fn. 22) The writer of the tract
stated that the same scheme was tried without success
at Loughton: 'although many accepted the supper
there given, an old man gave the signal, when he with
others at once proceeded to the forest and duly secured
their charter.' (fn. 23) These stories may have some value as
traditions explaining the different arrangements as to
lopping at Loughton and Waltham Abbey. Their
publication in 1860 must have increased the suspicion
of the cottagers of Loughton that their rights were in
danger. It is significant that it is from the 1860's that
there comes the story that Thomas Willingale saved
the lopping rights in Loughton in a manner similar to
that described in the tract. (fn. 24) Willingale is supposed to
have been one of the loppers who were entertained by
the lord of the manor to a supper on 11 November 1860.
As midnight approached he 'rose up hastily from the
table, shouldered his axe, called to his fellows and went
out to lop as usual', thus 'defeating the lawyers'. There
is good evidence that he did something of this kind, in
the belief that the continued existence of the lopping
rights depended upon his action. But he has a more
serious claim to fame as one of the preservers of Epping
Forest.

In December 1865 Thomas Willingale (c. 1793-
1870), a woodman by trade, was summoned by J. W.
Maitland before the Epping bench for injuring forest
trees in Loughton. (fn. 25) The case was dismissed. In
March 1866 Thomas's son Samuel Willingale (1840-
1911) with Samuel's cousins Alfred Willingale (1843-
1934) and William Higgins (1842-70) were summoned at Waltham Abbey for a similar offence, and
fined. All three refused to pay the fines and took the
option of seven days' imprisonment. (fn. 26) In October
1866 old Thomas Willingale filed a suit in Chancery
against J. W. Maitland and others in support of the
lopping rights. (fn. 27) He was advised and financed by the
newly formed Commons Preservation Society, of which
the leading spirit was E. N. Buxton (1840-1924). (fn. 28)
The case was never brought to a final hearing and lapsed
on Willingale's death in 1870. Soon after this the first
Epping Forest Act (fn. 29) set up a Royal Commission to
investigate the whole problem of the forest, and about
the same time the City of London started legal proceedings in defence of common rights throughout the
forest. (fn. 30) In 1875 the Epping Forest Commissioners
made their preliminary report. They found that
inclosures made within the 20 years before 1871 were
illegal, since they contravened the rights of the commoners living in the forest parishes, and in some cases
also the rights of the Crown. (fn. 31) In their final report
(1877) the commissioners specifically recognized the
lopping rights of the inhabitants of Loughton. (fn. 32) Meanwhile, in 1876 the City of London had purchased from
J. W. Maitland the soil and the forest rights formerly
held by the Crown in 992 acres of the open waste of
the manor of Loughton. (fn. 33) This was the whole area
inclosed in the 1860's within Loughton parish except
for land actually built upon. In their final report the
Forest Commissioners recommended that all the illegal
inclosures should be retained by their occupants on
payment of rent charges, but there was strong opposition to this proposal, led by George Burney, owner of
a small estate in Loughton. (fn. 34) The objectors removed
the fences of some of the inclosures and were largely
responsible for causing the government to disregard
the recommendation that the inclosures should remain.

The forest question was finally settled by the Epping
Forest Act of 1878. (fn. 35) This Act appointed the Corporation of the City of London to be Conservators of the
Forest, with the duty of keeping the forest as an open
space for public recreation. All illegally inclosed lands,
except those actually built on, were to be thrown open.
The owners of waste lands not thrown open were to
pay for the quieting of their titles. The Conservators
were to buy up the lopping rights of Loughton.

The forest was thus saved. The City of London paid
£7,000 for the extinction of the lopping rights and
with this money the Lopping Hall was built. (fn. 36) The
lord of the manor and his principal tenants contended
to the last that the inclosures of 1851-71 were beneficial to the parish by providing a larger rateable area
and more work for the poor, and they continued to
deny the existence of the lopping rights. (fn. 37) In the end,
however, it was J. W. Maitland himself who performed the official opening of the Lopping Hall in
1884. (fn. 38) Though he has sometimes been severely
criticized for his advocacy of inclosure he is in general
a figure who commands respect. (fn. 39) He was a faithful
priest and zealous public servant, prominent on the
Epping Board of Guardians and the Rural District
Council and first Chairman of the Loughton Urban
District Council. (fn. 40) As for old Thomas Willingale it
has been pointed out that he himself made illegal
inclosures within the manor; but his general character
appears to have been good. (fn. 41)

18. Fisher, Forest of Essex, 249 f. Rep. of Epping Forest Com. H.C. 187, p. 4 (1877), xxvi. By the original custom lopping began on All Saints Day (1 November) and ended on St. George's Day (23 Apr.). In 1753 the opening date was moved to 12 Nov. following the national adjustment of the calendar. For his custom see also below, Parish Government and Poor Relief.

41.
Essex Naturalist, xxi, 167. The papers of Cmdr. J. W. Maitland, M.P., of Harrington Hall, Spilsby, Lincs., include some material relating to the forest question; this was not examined for the present survey. There are also many documents about the forest question in the Public Record Office and the Guildhall, London.